King et ses hommes (Aredit comic)/plot
The plot of King et ses hommes, while based on that of King of the Commandos, is substantially different. The nickname "Gimlet" is not used at all and he is referred to as King throughout. He does not sign his raids with the painted symbol of a gimlet. Rather, he paints a letter K topped with a small crown. The "Grey Fleas of the North" are known in the adaptation as "Les Puces du Nord" (literally, the Fleas of the North). In the original Johns text, the French is given as "Lex Poux Gris du Nord", which actually translates as the Grey Lice of the North. Generaloberst Gunther does not appear at all--the chief enemy is "Major" von Roth (Hauptmann von Roth in the original). Chapter headings are not used in the comic. The headings below are given simply to allow for easier comparison with the original story. The Meeting with Cub The meeting with Cub and the rescue of Gimlet proceeds as per the original story but is expanded and embellished. After they rescue Gimlet, he decides to make a call to Major Roth (Generaloberst Gunther does not appear) to tell him that he is at the radio post and that he will destroy it. Roth rushes to the scene with his troops but by then Gimlet and co. have blown up the hut and departed. The egress from France is only mentioned in passing in the original but is given detailed treatment in the comic. Here, Gimlet and co. paddle out to a waiting submarine. Roth calls up aircraft and patrol boats to find the submarine but they fail to do so. Cub is treated more roughly in the comic than the original. Here Copper actually gags him and bundles him into the boat and the submarine. The gag is only taken off when Gimlet questions him about his backstory. In a major deviation from the original, Cub has a more specific reason is this case to explain why he needs to stay in France: his father, Colonel Lionel Peters, had been captured at Dunkirk but had escaped from the P.O.W. train. He had then been recaptured by Roth's men and then held at a camp at Falaise. Return to France Gimlet and co. return to France with Cub, again by submarine. They are greeted not by Falcon as in the original, but by the Owl. He will play a major part in the story from here on. Owl tells them about the capture of the Fox. The rescue of Fox proceeds on different lines. Fox is scheduled to be taken to Germany by car, not flogged and shot as in the original. The rescuers ambush the car with smoke grenades. After the raid, Cub, Copper and Gimlet make their egress in a vegatable cart with Grasshopper as in the original. It is Trapper's job (not Cub's) to get the Fox from the car. They then make their escape with Owl by a different route. They do not meet up with Gimlet at the farmhouse. Much later, after Gimlet, Copper and Cub have left the farmhouse and gone back to the Grey Fleas hideout, Trapper, Fox and Owl reunite with them. Several pages are devoted to explaining what happened to Trapper's group in the interval. Owl, a Caen resident, took them by a sidestreet to hide at the pharmacy of a friend named Marcel until things had quietened down. They make their way back to the forest of Caen later and meet up with the Frog along the way. The Falaise Raid It is Frog who gives, in person, the information about the trains at Falaise. His report is slightly different from the original--here, he reports that Cub's father and other P.O.W.s are in a train waiting to be taken to Germany. This, and a goods train are being held at siding while an ammunition train passes through from Paris to Cherbourg. The subsequent raid takes place along the same lines but involves a collision between the goods train and the ammunition train. After than, they rescue Cub's father and make their escape in the loose engine but they head for Cherboug via Caen, not Chateaudun. Cub suggests that they abandon the engine and switch to a barge. The barge is on the river Orne and not the Sarthe, and it is owned by Jules Rochet (who was already shot in the original). Marcelle Rochet does not appear at all. The barge heads back to Caen, not towards Le Mans. Jules is reluctant to take them to Caen because he might be wanted for refusing to transport German goods. He is convinced to take the risk only after Gimlet and changed the name of the barge with a paintbrush. Ending Back at Caen, Gimlet, with Colonel Peters and the others make their way to the Fleas hideout. They radio HQ which sends a Westland Lysander to pick the Colonel up. He wants to take his son along but Gimlet tells him he still needs Cub for the next part of the mission, the rescue of the hostages at Chateaudun. Colonel Peters flies home and the rest of the story is taken up in King et les otages. Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)